The Gift
by Ariel Hedgehog
Summary: A sweet glimpse of the future brightens a horrible day.


Author's note: Last night, a little minx called Myka joined the party in my head and decided to bug me with this story. Since she wouldn't let go until I wrote it down, I indulged her and here it is. It takes place after my story The Swap but you don't have to have read it to understand. Once again, a HUGE thank you to Eridani Moon, my friend and my editor. Without her I couldn't publish my stories. Please take a moment to review, it feels like a ray of sunshine in my days.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters; I just enjoy playing with them... or them playing with me.

**The Gift**

It all started when Myka was awakened by the noise of the construction site next to the B&B. She and Pete had finally made it back from Seattle at 5 AM; after a tense, three-day retrieval, and she had been beyond exhausted. Sleeping on the plane had been impossible due to a baby crying during the entire flight and all she'd wanted to do was fall unconscious into her bed for twelve solid hours… But when the bang-bangs and the dzzzzzt of power tools had started around 7 AM, sleep had become impossible. She'd never been able to sleep with earplugs, so she had no choice but to get up; thinking maybe she could ask Artie to crash in his room at the Warehouse. The room was empty because Dickens had decided to sleep somewhere else for once.

Myka took her towel and her bag with all her amenities in it and went to the bathroom. The closed door told her someone had beaten her to it so she decided to wait outside. Ten minutes later, she sat on the floor because her feet were killing her.

"Myka? Myka!"

Myka woke up with a start. Glancing up, she found Pete looking down at her; one towel knotted loosely around his waist, another one around his neck, and wearing nothing else.

Concern filled his eyes as he questioned, "Hey, you ok? You fell asleep on the floor. Why don't you go sleep in your bed?"

Myka slowly got to her feet, her legs now all numb as she replied, "Because they are making too much noise constructing whatever the hell they are constructing next door and I can't sleep. Why are you up anyway?"

Pete took the towel from around his neck and started drying his hair. His voice was muffled as he explained, "Apparently they're building a huge honkin' house for some rich people. And I'm up because I drank a Red Bull before we landed and now I can't sleep, so I went for a run with Helena. Damn, she's fast for someone of 150."

Myka smiled. Pete was right. Helena could run like a gazelle.

Pete tossed his towel at the hamper and smiled as he offered, "I'm off to bed. I don't mind the hammering."

"Sleep well." Myka turned to enter the bathroom but was faced with a closed door again. She tried the handle but the door was locked.

"I'll just be a minute, darling!" The charming British voice filtered through the door, bringing a smile to Myka's face; a smile that faded as the voice added, "I need to get rid of all the sweat."

"Great! Just great," muttered Myka.

She hadn't noticed that Helena had snuck into the bathroom while she was talking to Pete. And since she had locked the door, they couldn't shower together. Myka thought about skipping the shower for now and going to get breakfast, but with her luck today, Claudia or Leena would take the bathroom after Helena, and Myka really wanted to take her shower. Knowing that her fiancée always took more than a minute in the shower, Myka went back to their bedroom and retrieved the book she had started reading on the plane. To be sure not to fall asleep again, she started walking back and forth in the hallway.

Half an hour later, Helena finally emerged from the steamy bathroom. "There! All yours, darling. You couldn't sleep?"

Myka entered the bathroom to be sure nobody would take her place. Shaking her head, she replied, "No I couldn't sleep with all the racket next door. I'll try to go on with my day and have an early night or I'll ask Artie if I can crash in his room at the Warehouse if I get too sleepy."

"Nonsense, darling!" Waving her hand dismissively, Helena chimed, "I'll just go ask the gentlemen next door to stop their racket and then you'll be able to sleep in our bed."

Myka smiled. "That's very sweet of you, honey, but you can't do that."

Frowning, Helena demanded, "Why not?"

Biting back a bark of laughter at the affront in her Brit's voice, Myka answered, "Because those men have a job to do and even if you did manage to get them to stop, I'm sure the owners of the house wouldn't appreciate the workers getting behind schedule."

Frowning, Helena began, "But..."

"I'll be fine Helena." Caressing her lover's cheek, Myka said, "It's not the first time I've had to stay up when I'm exhausted. Promise me you won't go over there and distract them?"

Helena got closer to her girlfriend. "Myka, you should know by now that you're the only one I want to distract." Winking, she added, "Enjoy your shower!"

Myka watched her walk to their bedroom, swaying her hips and had to fight the urge to join her. Damn, her woman was hot!

Smiling, Myka closed the bathroom door and took off her pyjamas after placing her towel, her bag and her book on the counter. The room was filled with steam and it felt good to be warm. She turned on the water, got it to the right temperature and stepped into the tub with a sigh.

Her hair was full of shampoo lather when the water suddenly went boiling hot. Myka stepped away from the spray of water with a yelp and then cursed under her breath. She _hated_ when that happened. The water went back to tolerable, then got colder and colder until it was ice cold. Myka got angry and slammed her fist against the wall. It wasn't the first time Helena had emptied the hot water tank; and she had told her several time to be careful, but the Brit never listened. There was no other choice now but to just go with it and hurry up to rinse her hair; and forget about the conditioner, which made her angrier. Curly hair was hell when moisturized; now it would be even worse. Myka took the plunge, gritted her teeth and put her head underneath the icy water. When she was finally soap free, she was shivering from head to toe and her teeth were chattering. She dried herself and dressed quickly then she attacked the hair nest. She was halfway done when someone banged on the door.

"Who's in there? I have to go… Please, it's urgent!" asked Claudia.

"Go to the bathroom downstairs, Claud, I'm trying to fix my hair," replied Myka.

"Already occupied downstairs. Please Myka, it's an emergency!" begged Claudia.

Myka sighed and gave up. She could finish this later; it wasn't like it could get any worse. She picked up her things and opened the door. Claudia didn't waste any time and pulled her out of the room before stepping inside and slamming the door behind her.

"You're welcome," muttered Myka. This was going to be one hell of a day wasn't it? Still shivering, she went down to the kitchen, where she found a bagel bag that had one bagel left and took it. At least she had managed to get that! She spread some cream cheese on it, and then went to the dining room where she put her plate on the table. Then she went back to the kitchen to get a glass of orange juice. Unfortunately, the glass slipped from her hands and fell to the floor, splattering juice and glass shards everywhere. Cursing silently, Myka hurried to clean up the mess. When everything was clean again; and she was sure no one would be hurt, she took a cup and poured the last of the coffee. When she went to pour milk, the three drops she managed to get from the carton barely changed the color of the coffee. Sighing, she put the carton in the recycling bin and went back to the dining room where she found Pete finishing off her bagel.

Narrowing her eyes, she demanded, "What are you doing here, I thought you were sleeping!"

Shrugging, he finished chewing before replying, "I got hungry!"

"That was MY bagel!" Smacking him upside the head, she growled, "And you could have put the empty milk carton in the recycling bin instead of back in the fridge!"

"It wasn't written on it that it was your bagel!" Rubbing the back of his head, he defended, "And I didn't leave the carton in the fridge!"

They started arguing and the yelling got louder and louder until Myka got fed up and turned around to leave. She didn't see her ferret being chased by Dickens, who was chased by Trailer, who was chased by Claudia and she fell hard to the floor while trying to avoid the animals that ran into her legs.

"That's it! I'm moving out!" she yelled.

Everything in the room went quiet. Claudia was the first to realize what Myka had said. Her eyes went wide as she demanded, "What do you mean you're moving out? You're leaving again? You can't leave!"

Pete started arguing too and it just made Myka angrier. She started shouting and that's how Helena found all of them when she came to investigate the ruckus. She placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly enough to make them stop yelling. When they froze in place she demanded, "What is going on here?"

Myka, Pete and Claudia started talking at the same time and Helena had to whistle again. Turning to Myka, she softly questioned, "Darling, what's going on? Are you hurt?"

"I'll be fine, Helena," said Myka, not wanting to tell her fiancée about her sudden decision.

"She wants to move out and leave us again," blurted Claudia.

Helena decided to take the matter into her own hands. "Claudia, please get the ferret back in its cage, get Dickens out and take Trailer for a walk. Pete, help Myka up, and then I want you out of sight. Myka… you're coming with me."

Everyone obeyed and a few minutes later Myka was lying on the sofa in the library, her head resting on Helena's lap as the other woman caressed her hair in a soothing manner. Leaning closer, she whispered, "Now, tell me, why do you want to move out?"

"Because it would be nice to have our own place and not have to wait an hour to take a shower or simply go to the bathroom. A place with a huge hot water tank that would never be empty, and that would have plenty of milk and bagels. A place where I could make you scream as loud as possible at night without fearing someone would hear. A place just for you and me." Shrugging, Myka fought her exhaustion as she added, "I don't know, I'm just so tired!"

Helena started massaging her scalp and it felt divine, lulling her to sleep as Helena murmured, "I understand what you mean, darling… Get some sleep and we'll talk about it after ok?"

Myka was already half asleep as she answered, "Mmm...k..."

She was in Morpheus's arms in no time.

She woke up mid-afternoon to find that Helena hadn't moved. She was typing on her laptop placed on a small table in front of her, and Myka took a moment to observe the woman who had stolen her heart.

"Did you sleep well, darling?" Helena suddenly asked.

Jumping at the sudden intrusion of sound, Myka groggily replied, "How did you know I was awake?"

"Your breathing changed," explained the Brit with a smile. "How do you feel?"

Stretching, Myka smiled, answering, "Much better than this morning."

Smiling down at her fiancée, Helena asked, "Do you still feel we should move out?"

Myka thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yes. Yes I think it would be a good thing for us. But only if we can manage to convince Artie and find a place that's not too far from here though."

A secret smile played about Helena's lips as she confided, "It might not be necessary."

Myka was puzzled. Raising an eyebrow, she inquired, "What do you mean?"

Helena's dark eyes twinkled with mischief as she crooked her finger and ordered, "Come with me."

Myka's curiosity got the better of her and she rose from the sofa, followed by Helena. Helena took her future-wife's hand and led her outside to the porch of B&B, questioning, "Do you trust me, Myka?"

Myka's eyes narrowed in confusion as she quickly replied, "With my life, you know that."

"Then put this on your eyes and let me guide you," instructed Helena, giving Myka the scarf from around her neck.

Intrigued, Myka obeyed without questioning.

Helena's voice was a breath in her ear as she whispered, "Do you see anything?"

Shaking her head, Myka replied, "No."

Pleasure filled the Brit's voice as she drawled, "Good."

Helena took Myka's hands in hers and led her through numerous detours to be sure Myka didn't know where they went. When they finally reached their destination, Helena took the scarf from Myka's eyes and stated, "Et voilà!"

Myka opened her eyes and looked around her. They were in the middle of a construction site and she could see it the B&B in the background. Gasping, she demanded, "Helena, why did you bring me here? The neighbors won't appreciate seeing us in their unfinished house."

Satisfaction filled Helena's face as she held out her hands and said, "It's ours."

Myka was stunned. "What?"

Helena took her hands again and looked her fiancée in the eyes. "It's our house. I bought the land a few months ago when I realized that even if Leena's place was very nice, I wanted to have a house with you; a home. A home where I could make you scream at the top of your lungs and where we could raise our family. It was supposed to be a surprise for our wedding night but after the bad morning you had, I figured you could use the surprise right now." Winking at Myka, the Brit added, "I'll think of something else to give to you for our wedding. But this is our house. Our home."

Myka was speechless. She kept opening and closing her mouth as if to say something but nothing came out.

Helena frowned at the unaccustomed silence, saying, "Myka? Say something darling."

Then, Myka found the exact words to express how she felt. "I love you so much!"

Helena smiled and wrapping her arms around the other woman, kissed her passionately under the whistling of the construction workers.

The End


End file.
